MaryESP

eHalcyon wrote:Abe is holding the wand with his left hand and holding the giraffe's neck with his right. Assuming that Abe is in fact choking the giraffe rather than just pulling it out of the hat, it is interesting to note that this act of violence is being committed with the right hand as opposed to the left hand (the latin word for left is "sinestra", from which we also derive such words as "sinister"). Even as the "good" hand acts horridly, the left hand holds the wand. If we hearken back to our childhood days, we remember that magic is AWESOME. Clearly this reversal of roles suggests that we are all capable of good and evil, and that we should not assume the character of anyone based on our own prejudices and stereotypes.

ghostsushi

I really love Abraham Lincoln. He is my favorite historical figure of all time, but this shirt seems either dull and nonsensical from a literal standpoint or horribly offensive and punch-in-the-face worthy from a metaphorical standpoint.

cak3

serfer0 wrote:Whoa, Nellies!
Sometimes a Woot shirt is just a Woot shirt.
It is a nod to the old time circus banners with lofty names. Say it to yourself in a scary, magical voice: The Greeeeat Emaaaaancipaaatorrr!
See? No racism. Gee whiz, y'all.
And yeah, his hat was tall. Why waste all that space on a tiny rabbit? Go big or go home!
This proud Illinoisan will take one please!

All right! Face value! Since when were these about symbolism? I buy 'em because they are sometimes funny and/or look nifty. Funnifty, if you will (I am not proud of that).

Here is some more symbolism though. Not only does The Great Emancipator sound like a stage magician's name, but magicians wear hats, and Abraham Lincoln, too, wore a hat. Definitely some symbolism going on there, what with the hat being a symbol for hats.

so, using simple mathematical induction, this shirt is about how there is a dude that looks like ol' Abe that is pulling a thing out of a hat, and also he is called the Great Emancipator. Hehe, its funny, because he emancipated things, but that also sounds like a magician name. Get it?

JadenKale

Some people are stuck in their youth... I'm betting that secretly, the person pines for the days they locked themselves in their room. I bet they'd listen to their moody music with a candle or two burning and wrote in their diary that they wish everyone in the world would just disappear or that they could die to teach them all a lesson.

cak3

Slinky83 wrote:Who comes up with these terrible shirts anyway? only an emo 12 year old would buy this apcray.... so basically it'll sell great. LOL!

HA! I see what you did there. See, you said it would sell great (you meant "well" or "very well", since "great" is an adjective, of course) that was subtly implying that all of your fellow wooters were 12 year old emo kids!

Whoo, man, thats a hoot. Good one. Bet anybody who bought it feels stupid now that they read your comment. You pegged em spot on man. Abe is the ultimate emo, what with his bangs combed over his face, and this shirt is very depressing and everything -- not at all whimsical.

kaimano

xxchange wrote:Interesting! Would have never thought of that. Though, in reality, he really wasn't very tall. Only about six foot two.

Putting it in historical perspective, six foot two (actually six foot four) was extremely tall at that time.
Next you're gonna tell me Napoleon was incredibly short...at least that's what the victors would have you believe

fleamarketadict

Sorry, but you need to spend a little more time on this part. Or maybe it's just bad symbolism. Slavery was not a Southern thing, There were slave owners all over America, and they weren't all wealthy nor were they all plantation owners.

thouck53

gcgator

caspianta wrote:am i taking this the wrong way, or is this the most offensive thing ever? likening the man who is remembered for ending slavery (emancipating) to a magician who's...i dunno...getting PETA upset by forcing an abused giraffe be a part of a trick. i'm kind of ashamed of woot for producing this shirt...for me it goes a little too far.

2thFairy

dave17

xxchange wrote:Clearly we have a northerner designer here. See, the point of the shirt is that Abe is MAGIC. He's taking the giraffe out of the hat! I mean, you'd have to be magic to get that animal in in the first place. And you know no one but the northerners are going to think highly of Abe. The southerners are still fighting the Civil War, and the rest of the world is using Abe to make fun of the US for not banning slavery until the 1800s.

(From Birmingham,AL)
So...You are writing from the 1930s?
You sure as hell don't live in the south.

wburke73

I mean its no Virgin Mary painted with elephant dung, but its definitly stirred up some controversy among the Woot discussion community. Personally, I think the illustartion looks like something that I would view in The New Yorker. Being that I live in the South (despite the actual meaning of this shirt - if any), I do not have the cohonnes to wear it and field an onslaught of harmful leers and accusatory questioning.

winnie71

This thread is hard to read, so many of the posts with the most outrageous theories are not for real, and so many others seem to be taking them as though they are. I really cannot imagine it ever occurring to anyone when I walked by them that this shirt was offensive.
It's an unusually tall dude w/ an unusually tall hat, using an unusually tall animal for a trick. That's it. An unusually funny shirt.

SurplusHP

tehooper

serfer0 wrote:Whoa, Nellies!
Sometimes a Woot shirt is just a Woot shirt.
It is a nod to the old time circus banners with lofty names. Say it to yourself in a scary, magical voice: The Greeeeat Emaaaaancipaaatorrr!
See? No racism. Gee whiz, y'all.
And yeah, his hat was tall. Why waste all that space on a tiny rabbit? Go big or go home!
This proud Illinoisan will take one please!

Ditto. Abe was tall. His hat was tall. Ergo, a tall animal comes out of the hat, i.e. a giraffe. Don't overthink it people.

doctoramie

oh, wow! did this take me a while to 'get'
for all those who need more coffee like me:
abe wore a stovepipe hat...magicians wear hats
magicians have rabbits in their hats...abe had a really big hat so let's say a giraffe could fit in it.
magicians have names according to what their best trick is...abe's best thing was emancipation.
whew!
clever and i don't think related (much) to africa, but i'm still not buying it. too much explaining.

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